bad idea?
by Mlle. Machine
Summary: [HIATUS RENOVATING] She ran. her legs grew tired, but she kept runing. she collapsed from all the pain in her heart. get up. someone harshly ordered from above.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh, nor do I own any of the characters.

She ran. Her legs grew tired, but she wouldn't stop running. Tears streamed down her face and her chest throbbed. How could he? How could Yugi do such a thing? That was something she would have never expected from such a loyal friend. Her legs had carried her into the woods and straight into a clearing. She dropped to her knees and clutched her aching heart. _Yugi, how could you?_ Sobs pushed out from her mouth, and the tears never stopped flowing.

"Get up."

Severe. Rude.

"It's pitiful looking at such a scene."

Disgusting. Her blue eyes hardened and shot towards a cold face, staring off into the distance. "Kaiba..." she said coldly.

"Get up!" he ordered again.

Tea reluctantly obeyed and fiercely swiped tears away from her eyes. "What do you want?" she said, in a now calmer tone, trying to look him in the eye, but they kept running away from hers.

He didn't answer. Instead he turned on his heals and walked to his Blue-Eyes ship. "I don't have any business here." He said over his shoulder. "I was just on a late night stroll, and happened to bump into you. Now, if you'd excuse me, I have way more important things to do."

_Jerk,_ She thought as she listened to his feet clank against the metal steps of his aircraft. An idea hit her at that moment. This could be the perfect opportunity to get away. "Wait! Kaiba!" she yelled after him and sprinted up to the bottom of the steps. "Take me with you!"

His foot was in mid air. He stomped his foot down, frustrated, and looked at her coldly. "Why?" it was too late for the question. She had already zoomed by him and speedily boarded the aircraft. _I guess I have no choice..._ he sighed to himself. He walked by her and sat in his pilot chair. "Just so you know, I didn't agree on this, so no 'thank you, Kaiba's' or anything. Don't even speak to me."

"Anything's better then here..." she mumbled.

Horrible screeching noises came from the retreating staircase and closing doors. Seto looked back at Tea for a split second, then went back to all the buttons on his precious aircraft. "You can sit there if you like." He said, pointing at an old chair at the back of the ship. She slightly nodded and walked over to the chair.

The ship jolted. Tea gripped hard on the arms of the chair and squeezed her eyes shut as it sped off onto the night. She tried suppressing a scream, but failed miserably.

The sharp pitch of the scream made Seto want to rip his ears out. _What have I done? This was a bad idea..._ Unfortunately for him, there was no turning back.

* * *

I know this was a short chapter. I will make the future chapters longer if I get any reviews (hint, hint.)


	2. two

Thank you for your reviews, I greatly appreciate it. Now, please note that Seto and Tea _are_ still in high school, and I am not a fan of teenagers marrying and, well, you know... But, you'll see what happens...

Pillywigin: Oops. Sorry about that. I guess it does sound quite similar at first, but I think it will become a little bit more different. Maybe, I don't know. Then again, it's not THAT similar either. In yours, Tea is lost, and just so happens to run into Seto and Mokuba. Mokuba then kind of, persuades Seto to take Tea with. In mine, Tea needs to run away, and doesn't even wait for Seto to answer before she comes along with him. All in all, I think the only thing similar, is the fact that he takes her home. Anyhow, that's just my opinion. By the way, about you fic, I think you should add a little more detail. (Sorry if that sounded harsh... my friends say I've got a knack for doing that...** -scratches head-**)

Seguha: I can't really review because my Damned Internet is causing problems, and the bloody review button isn't working, so I'll put the review here. Wow is all I can say. You story is fantastic and original. Usually, I would suggest that you add more detail, but, strangely, I feel as if you had already described things enough. The thing I like most about it, is that it's got many different genres: drama, angst, maybe a little bit of 'mixed feelings' between Tea and Kaiba... and its got a dark side to it, which I like a lot. As for the other story, I think you should go for it. it sounds really good. (Sorry again, for not reviewing properly)

Anyhow, if anyone knows anything about Dungeon Dice Monsters, I could really use your help. (it's for another fanfic I'm writing.)

Enough chitchat and on with the story!

* * *

The aircraft smoothly landed and Tea was able to open her eyes at last. The door reopened and the stairs unfolded. Seto was off the ship in no time, but it took a while for the dizzy Tea to get down the stairs without almost tripping over her own two feet. When she finally got off, she took in a long, deep breath of the cool night air and rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes.

The wind was knocked out of her as she stared at the skeletons and half build roller coasters, Ferris wheels and joy rides. _Wow! He did it! He actually started making an amusement park, just like he said he would!_

"No time to stand around. Hurry and follow me..." he commanded from a few feet ahead of her. She shook her head and followed him down a path, leading to a mansion right in the middle of the park.

The creaking of the opening door echoed throughout a long, shiny hall with tall stone statues and wall torches. Being completely bewildered, Tea almost stepped off the mat, when a hand grabbed her shoulder. "Take off your shoes before entering."

She nodded, and listened to the last of his echoing voice while carefully removing her shoes. They never spoke to one another, yet the walk through the long hall was anything but silent. The keys in Seto's pocket rattled and echoed, and even the light tapping of their feet bounced around the walls. Tea was enjoying this way more then she should have.

They reached a door at the end of the hall. The seconds it took to open the door passed by slowly, as she waited excitedly to see the interior.

"wow..." she whispered at the red and gold tones of the interior. She mindlessly stepped into the center of the bottom floor and looked above her at the several other layers. Each of them went fully around the circular shape, leaving a whole in the center. But... there was no staircase... nor was there a way to get up.

"There's a staircase right over there, in case you were wondering." Said Seto, and pointed to a door near the electric fireplace. He wasn't looking at her when he said this, but to the side with his eyes closed. Obviously frustrated. He did not like the fact that someone else other then family, or one of his helpers, was in the house. His hands tightened into fists, and a muscle in his jaw twitched at the annoying growl, that emerged from Tea's stomach.

She put a hand on her stomach and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, haven't eaten in a while."

"Follow me." He said, trying his hardest not to throw a fit at that moment. He led her through two slide doors at the other end of the room. Seto got even more frustrated at her, again, bewildered reaction of the dining room

_How'd he get all this stuff?_ She asked herself while staring at the long tabled in the middle of the dining room, with a green, black and beige Chinese carpet under it. A large hand suddenly pressed against her back. She whipped her head to the side and looked at a plump man with thick, bulky black hair and a full mustache.

"Ah! Senor Kaiba! You never told me you were bringing this lovely girl to the house." He said lively, with a strong Spanish accent and a slight smirk on his face. He winded Tea with a strong pat on the back.

"It's not what it looks like, Roberto..." Seto answered coldly. "She is hungry and would like something to eat."

"I see..." Roberto said, still with a hint of suspicion in his voice. "You too Senor?"

"Sure why not... I've got nothing better to do anyway..." he sighed. The keys in his pocket still rattled as he walked to his usual place at the head of the table.

"Ok, I'll be right back with an exquisite dish for you both." And with that, disappeared through the kitchen doors.

Tea walked awkwardly to the seat beside Seto. His arms were crossed tightly over his chest, and looked as if his eyes were closed, but she knew that in reality, he was looking down, concentrating on something, obviously aggravated. Tea unnoticeably shifted under all the moment's tension, and the silence made her very uncomfortable. She had to talk about something to break the tension... but what?

"S- so, how's Mokuba?" she said. She felt as if she hadn't spoken in ages.

"He's fine." He answered bluntly.

"That's good..." She said silently.

More awkward silence...

Shockingly, Seto broke the silence this time. "Not that I care or anything, but how's Yugi Moto?" he asked severely. A cold glaze suddenly came over her eyes. She was looking hard at the silver fork on the table in front of her.

_He's a cheater... a liar. His title has gotten to his head..._ she wanted to say, but decided not to say anything at all._ We're no good for him anymore..._ "Why do you want to know, Kaiba?" She asked almost through tears.

Seto looked away. "I said I don't care. You didn't have to answer me." _What's gotten in to her? I never remembered her being so cold toward Yugi. Whatever, it's her problem, and I couldn't care less... _

The food arrived. Tea looked up at Roberto and forcefully smiled. "Thank you"

"Ah! It's no problem..." he laughed hardily. "Enjoy your meal."

The both of them started eating their meal, silently. Tea has already gotten used to the silence. Actually, the last thing she wanted to do was talk to him...

Tea cleared her throat, and slid the last piece of chocolate cake into her mouth. She dropped the fork and knife on the plate with a clank, and broke what seemed like the never-ending silence. "I'm done." She noisily slid her chair out. "I'm going to sleep, tell Roberto I said thank you. See you in the morning, Kaiba."

Seto crossed his arms again, while listening to her footsteps fade in the other room. He sighed, knowing only what was coming next.

Tea's head popped into the room. "Uh, Kaiba," she said sheepishly, "I don't exactly know where to sleep."

_I knew it..._ "Follow me..." he sighed. He led her into the staircase and up the many flights of stairs, before finally reaching their destination. The door creaked open. "This is the top floor, or as Mokuba calls it, the sleeping floor." He let Tea catch her breath for a few seconds before continuing. "In case you haven't noticed, there are different monsters painted on each door. The one with the Blue-Eyes on it is obviously mine. The one with the Red-Eyes-Black-Dragon is Mokuba's, and the Scapegoat and Kuribo are both guest bedrooms." He stopped for a second, then continued, again. "The plain doors are restrooms. Only one of them has a shower, and the lock on that one is a little rusty, so before going in, let us know first. I take a shower every morning at 8:30, so, use the other restrooms at that time." He finished, never looking at her.

"Anything else you'd like to add?" she asked, obviously getting bored with the lecture.

"Well, _excuse me _if I was boring you. I was only trying to help. If you wanted someone to walk in on you in the shower, then I just wasted my breath." He growled.

"Good night Kaiba." She answered him in a sarcastically sweet tone. The door with the Scapegoat on it opened and closed behind her.

"Finally," he sighed to himself "peace and quiet at last"

* * *

There we go! Second chapter up! Review! 


	3. three

Here's something I forgot to add in the first chapter (you can blame my short memory for that...) I am open to suggestion if you've got any, and honesty is what I seek. Have you ever wondered why I called myself 'Flame Master?' It's because I'm fireproof, so don't be afraid to flame. And I will always update my stories as long as there are reviews, even if I haven't updated for two months, I will still update if I get any reviews.s

YAY!!!! My review button's working again!!! So, if you want me to review to anything, just tell me... just beware... I'm brutally honest, and if you don't want flames (if you believe your story's flammable that is) then don't ask me to review.

(I cannot believe I'm asking this...) ok, I am in DESPERATE need of reviews for my other story, and what I wanted to ask, if you guys could review for it. If you don't like it, you don't have to lie, just tell me what you think of it. (I am unlucky with reviews... even with this one I only got two for this last chapter -.-'... thanks for whoever reviewed.)

I just planned the nicest scene! I can't wait to get there... the only problem is that its for the last chapter...

OK! That's it! Third chapter, ENJOY!

* * *

A white light flooded the room, and crept beneath Tea's eyelids. Her eyes slowly opened, and sat up on the comfortable twin bed she found herself in. Having slightly forgotten the night before, she started to question herself about the strange new surroundings. The memory suddenly hit her smack on the head. The pictures flashed by in front of her eyes.... Yugi... the running... the tears... the forest... Kaiba... then the mansion...

She squeezed her eyes shut, shook her head, and then reopened them. The room was painted a soft blue and fluffy realistic clouds floated across the ceiling. She got out of the bed, and stretched her cramped arms and legs. With a long yawn, she wrapped her hands around the smooth, cold doorknob and walked out of the room, her bare feet slapping against the sun-warmed wooden floors. She peeked at her watch: 8:39. Scratching her head groggily, she pushed open one of the blank doors, and a cloud of steam poured out. She quizzically poked her head inside.... If she was groggy before, now she was fully awake.

They both froze. A deep crimson shade swelled on their cheeks. "You stupid, idiotic girl! Get out!" Growled Seto. (A/N: he was in the shower, by the way...)

Tea blinked her eyes many times, and had one last accidental look at him, before slamming the door behind her. Her hands were on her knees. She was panting hard, with a deep crimson face. Her eyes were squeezed shut, hoping the picture would seep away... but it remained. She took in a long, sharp breath, and pushed a loud, piercingly high-pitched scream.

Seto jumped and slipped at the sudden outburst, and shoved his fingers in his ears as the scream dragged on... it seemed never ending although it had only lasted a few seconds. He stuck by to what he had thought the other night... this really _was_ a bad idea....

The door with the Red-Eyes-Black-Dragon burst open, while the last sharp note escaped her mouth.

"WHAT IS GOING O... on?" he raised an eyebrow suspiciously at Tea. In one breath he seemed to have asked several questions. "What are you doing here? Aren't you with Yugi? When did you get in? Does Seto know? Why is your face all red?"

She blinked her eyes in fascination at how fast he asked all this. His sudden questioning was speedy, but clear. "Um, well, I, uh, er..." she began to answer when someone coldly cut her off.

"None of your business, Mokuba." Said Seto, who had a large towel covering his body, and a shade of red clouding his cheeks.

"But, Seto-"

"I said none of your business..." his older sibling snarled, then slammed the door to his room behind him.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Awkward feelings jumped around the breakfast table as the three ate. Both Seto's and Tea's cheeks were red, and she was barely even able to look at him, and vice-versa. Poor Mokuba had no clue as to what was going on and felt out of place. All he could do was shift his eyes from Seto to Tea, then back to Seto and back to Tea, hoping they would at least say something... but they never did.

She put her hands behind her head, and was very careful not to raise her eyes and look in Seto's direction. The image of him still remained in her mind, and did not go away. She was at least thankful that the steam made things very unclear, and wasn't able to see him in full detail, but it was still bad enough to make her shriek like she did. Just one look at him, and her face would turn purple.

He was sitting in his usual stance: arms crossed, eyes down, and looking calm but frustrated, including the fact that this morning, his jaw was twitching, and it looked at if a vain in his temple was about to explode.

Mokuba drummed his fingers madly on the table, and no one seemed to have notice. He was extremely bored, and frustrated, and couldn't take the silence any longer. The last thing he wanted to do was aggravate his older brother, but he had to say something... and was also curious about what happened before. "So, what happened between you guys anyway?"

Tea suddenly felt really warm, and knew her face was turning a dark red. _Nu-uh! No way I'm telling him!_

A napkin crumpled suddenly under his strong, twitching hand, while the other slammed onto the table and Seto pushed himself up. "I'm going to work, Mokuba." He said, with a rather loud tone. "Show her around, keep her busy, and whatever you do, don't let her interfere with my work."

"All right, Seto..." he said, slightly uneasy.

Tea crossed her arms, and a suborn look hardened on her face. "You could have told me directly you know..." she still did not look at him.

He said nothing until he grumbled, "you would have forgotten anyway..." on his way out.

Her eyes shot and narrowed at the spot that he had just abandoned. _Jerk..._ she thought.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"And this is Seto's office..." finished Mokuba, opening a door and waving his hand inside. "OH! But you better not go in there, if Seto finds out we were here, he'll have our heads."

Tea smiled down on him and chuckled slightly. "I wouldn't want to be in here anyway."

Silence...

Mokuba broke it. "Ok, well, that's it for the inside. There's more outside... you want to see?"

"Sure!" she chimed. She needed the fresh air anyway. The mansion was huge and it took a lot of time to tour the whole place.

The way to the outdoors was quiet. They said nothing to each other. The only sounds were the light tapping of their footsteps and the unusual sound of rushing water.

Opening one of the many doors leading outside, Tea winced at the bright light hitting her eyes, and raised her hand to protect them. Once her vision cleared, she stared at a beautiful scene with mini waterfalls, falling into a huge pool, surrounded by large rocks. Tall plants and flowers sprung from the ground, creating a relaxed, tropical scenery. More to the left of the huge pool was another, slightly smaller one with steam rising out of it. _Where does he get all this stuff?_ She asked herself in amazement.

Mokuba raised an eyebrow at the guest slowly walking towards the Jacuzzi and looked as if she was about to drool. "Tea? You don't have your bathing suit here... I don't think it's a good idea to go into the water."

The painful reality hit her. He was right... she was in such a rush to get out the other day, that she didn't even think about packing. She turned away, as heavy, vain tears cascaded from her eyes. "Why didn't I think of that??? Now I'll be stuck in my uniform for days..."

The door slid open. Mokuba turned to see Seto in his swimsuit with a heavy green towel wrapped around his waist. Seto rolled his eyes at Tea's useless crying, and immediately began to itch with frustration, as if many insects were poured all over him and were crawling up and down his back. He could not hold his mouth back at this. "Stop your worthless crying. It won't get you anywhere."

Tea, who was too busy moping to even notice he was there, jumped in shock at his cold, harsh voice, and abruptly ceased crying pointlessly. She turned her face to him, and blushed furiously. Memories of that morning were still clouding her mind, making the blush deeper and deeper. She ran her eyes over most of what was blocked out by the steam. (Not the covered parts of course...) His body was lean, yet had hard muscles bulging from his stomach. His crossed arms looked delicate, yet strong and firm (I'm no good with these kind of descriptions....) She figured it must have been from all the lifting and hammering he had to do to build the amusement park. A warm light hit her face, and it was then that she realised it was getting late.

His face was in a light blush, and looked uneasy from all the staring. Though it seemed that he was just fine to Tea and did not seem to care, Mokuba noticed him slightly squirming under the scanning gaze. He walked right passed Tea and into the large, steamy pool. The warm water felt nice against his aching, cramped arms, legs and back. His plans were going rather smoothly, and expected most of the rides to be done before the end of the week. This day he managed to finish off the Duelling Stadium, Kuribo Wheel (what he named the Ferris wheel) and his favourite one yet, the Blue-Eyes Jolt (roller coaster.) With much pain and difficulty, he managed to rest his elbows on the edge of the pool. He winced when his back touched the hard wall, but then relaxed, and gently presses against it. He rolled up his towel, and placed it between his stiff neck and the wall, and closed his eyes gently, enjoying the hot, soothing water massage his cramped body.

* * *

This was a REALLY annoying chapter to write... Ideas flying everywhere, getting a MAJOR writers block... Yes, it was rather annoying, and might have been worse than the other two... But, it's up! Review! (And don't forget to review for the other story too...) 


	4. four

For those of you who wonder: you _will_ find out soon enough what happened between Yugi and Tea, but not yet.... You'll have to be patient for a while...

Here are my plans from now on: each chapter will represent one day Tea stays at Seto's house, and there will be only one time jump, probably later on.

Chapter 4, enjoy.

* * *

Though it was morning, his room was dark and stifling. No one dared to enter, for invasion on privacy was the number one thing he could not stand. His eyes were still shut, yet his mind was slowly gaining consciousness, and took in the familiar sounds of far away clanking and banging coming from the amusement park. _Good, they already got a head start_ was his first thought of the day. His sinister blue eyes opened and took in all the shadowy figures, partly hidden by the darkness. He took in a long breath, and started to stretch... that's when his muscles reminded him of the cramped and painful state they were in. He ignored them, and stiffly got up, with still a lot of difficulty and pain. Putting his feet delicately on the warm, carpeted floor, he took in another long breath of the muggy air and walked over to the blinds, and opened them, squinting at the brightness, and letting the warm sunlight flood into the room.

Standing shirtless in front of the window, he did not mind, for the room was so high up anyway. He had a perfect view of everything that went on, and could see the progress every morning he woke up. The night staff did quite a good job. He figured it would take no more then three more days work until he was finally able to finish the park, and start on the electricity. He averted his gaze from the window and looked at his laminated monthly schedule, sitting perfectly atop of his night table beside his bed. He pressed a finger against it, and slid it down until the empty squares were filled with letters. He was to be finished completely with this project by Tuesday of the following week, giving him eight days to finish off. The day after the deadline, festivities would be held from that day until the Friday. _Let's hope that girl wont get in the way._

Relieving a crick in his neck, he looked at his digital clock, and gasped at the time: 9:15! He dresses quickly and decided there wasn't enough time to take a shower, and hurried out the door, down the stares, and ran right by Tea and Mokuba, who was attempting a good-morning, but stopped as his older brother swooped by in a blur of colours.

"What's up with him?" Tea asked, raising an eyebrow in Kaiba's direction.

Mokuba cautiously pointed at the antique brass clock...

"Oh..." she said, nodding her head comprehensively.

Roberto came out through the sliding doors, and caught a last glimpse of his young master run out the door and out of sight. "Ah... so the Senor is late." He said, whistling his S's "Never heard of that before...." He approached Tea, and put a thick arm around her, while leaning his head near hers and whispered "he's changed since eh... yunno... what happened yesterday..."

Tea blushed slightly. That was the last thing she wanted to be reminded of. Roberto saw the uneasy look on her face, and laughed hardily "Don't worry too much! It was a joke!" he said, waving his hands around. "Come, I make you breakfast. You coming too, Mokuba?"

"Yea, wait up! I'm coming!"

--0-0-0

The weather was warm... no; hot... even scorching hot was an understatement. He worked hard for the past few hours without a meal to work it from. His throat was dry, his stomach grumbled, and sweat trickled down his face, back and arms. He had an urge to take off his shirt for some time, but his free-spirited abilities were lost amongst composure, and image... and what if... _she_ came along.... That bratty brunet has already walked in on him, and the last thing he wanted was her to see him shirtless, unless at the pools.

"Sir?" someone called up to him. "We finished the mechanical swings, and another roller coaster. How goes the waterslide?"

He looked at the blue and green slide and responded calmly "still need work... Speaking of work, what should _you_ be doing now?" he finished with a snap.

The man jumped, and hurried towards the game tents. With a sigh, Seto started drilling a nail into the sturdy plastic, and his stomach grumbled again. His stomach literally felt empty and he longed for some food to fill him up, although this did not appear so through his arctic face.

"Kaiba!" a sharp yell suddenly pierced through his ears, causing him to jolt on the latter, and come crashing down atop of something... or someone.

His face burned a deep red with rage and anger as he looked at the fool under him (this is Kaiba's POV btw... for your information, no I do NOT think Tea's a fool, nor do I find her annoying.) His hands were clenched in tight fists, as he tried his best to calm himself down, but it didn't turn out as well as expected. "Why you annoying, little useless... GIRL!!" he said through gritted teeth until they burst open in a growl. "Isn't Mokuba supposed to be looking after you?"

"I am old enough to take care of myself, Kaiba." Tea said heatedly. "I thought you would want something to eat, since you were in such a hurry this morning... er, would you mind getting off of me?"

He snorted as he violently pushed off her. He turned his head towards the latter and said coldly "Go on, get out of here, leave me to my work."

"But, aren't you hungry at all?" she asked stubbornly, only knowing what the answer is. _It's at least worth a try..._ she figured.

"Get out of my sight, fool! And don't interrupt me again!" He said irascibly, his temper being long gone.

"FINE!" she screeched, "I hope you starve to death!" with sheer frustration, she through the bag of food on the ground and stormed down the path cluttered with machine parts, plastic tablets, tools, nails and glass.

He sighed in relief as her harsh footsteps on the brick path became farther and farther away. His aggravated feeling was replaced with another one as he looked down at the bag, sitting temptingly on the ground blow him. His stomach growling was a reminder of how hungry he was, and he was slowly drawn in by its hypnotising smell of fresh bread.

"Master Kaiba! Watch out!" yelled one of the worker men.

He snapped back to reality, just in time to catch a loose piece of plastic coming down from the slide. He looked at it, then back up at were it came from... it was the one we was drilling in before that air headed cheerleader showed up. (Once again, I don't dislike Tea, the only reason I'm putting her down is because this is in Kaiba's point of view.) He put it back in place, and drilled it in completely. He looked back at the bag again, and turned away stubbornly, making a decision. _Hmph! I don't need any help!_

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"I'm going to get you!" Mokuba said with a happy growl, and chased Tea around the backyard next to the pools. It was just a regular piece of land with luscious green grass, and a few dandelions popping their heads through. Although she has only been here for two days, he was quickly growing fond of her. He caught up to her, and slapped her hard on the back. "Tag! You're It!"

She was slightly winded by the impact, and clutched her knees, also because she grew tired from all that running. "Good... game..." she said between pants. "Just try not to hit so hard next time."

He chuckled sheepishly with his hand behind his head. "Sorry... So, can we continue?" he was practically jumping for joy.

Tea straightened out "Ok," she wheezed, "but only for a little longer, I won't be able to last too long."

She dashed after him, feeling the cool dusk breeze wiz through her hair, and swoop past her body. Her legs were a little tired, but she wasn't completely worn out yet. With a major push, she sprinted at him, and tackled him, then tickled his as he squirmed on the ground. She couldn't help herself but laugh as well at his innocent laughter.

"That will be enough." Said someone roughly. Their faced both directed towards the older Kaiba. It was quite visible that he has been working hard, due to the fact that his shirt was covered in sweat, his hair was all over, and his face looked red and wet.

Tea shivered at the cold in his eyes, while Mokuba whined. "Aww... come on, Seto, we were only having a little fun..."

"Enough, Mokuba!" he snapped. "Come, Roberto's waiting for us to eat." He clasped his younger brother by the arm, and yanked him up. Mokuba let out a slight yelp, but did not show any signs of pain after that.

"Tea, come on!" he yelled over his shoulder, slightly trying to resist his brother's strong tug at his arm.

"Coming!" she called, and walked after them.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tea flopped down on the nice and warm, fluffy bed. She was starting to feel more comfortable around the house, since she and Mokuba have bonded. Things were going great... well, besides the fact that the older one was a cold jerk, and she was stuck in her uniform. She sighed happily... life here sure was better then back at home... back at home... back at home.... A sudden pain jolted throughout her body, and pierced through her heart. Her smile was turned upside-down, and painful tears leaked down her face and formed a slight puddle around her face on the bed... _Oh Yugi!_

__

* * *

Review! (and please review to my other story as well, thanks.)


	5. five

Thank you all for reviewing. And... REVIEW FOR MY OTHER STORY! (Yeesh, why must I beg..? I hate begging....)

Er... yea, **-scratches head sheepishly- **Seto was a tad bit too out of character... I'll try to make him better, but no promises there... I'm not too good at those kinds of things...

Reminder: words in _italics_ mean someone's thinking.

Ok, onward!

She awoke in dampness... salty, sticky dampness that irritated her skin, and made it sting. As she lifted herself out of the bed, she could still feel little droplets of salty tears finish their roll down her cheek, and seep into her mouth by the corners. She yawned, and swiped a hand across her moist face. Red lines from the tears ran down her left cheek, while the other was completely red from being in that salty puddle the whole night. She looked sleepily at her surroundings as all the thoughts ran through her mind in a flash, this taking a while for her to chew and digest it properly. Once her mind was done unwinding, she shook her head, and walked towards the curtains, flowing softly in the wind. Small splints of a faint light came through the growing and shrinking space between the two heavy indigo curtains. She grabbed hold of the thick material, and ripped them open, revealing heavy grey clouds, and naught but a small blue spot in the sky, being slowly engulfed by the grey.

With nothing to change into, she walked out the door, feeling as if her uniform stuck to her body, glued by sweat and stickiness. It was not a nice feeling... nor was it a nice smell. She walked into one of the restrooms, and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was messy, and stuck together in greasy chunks. Her uniform had grass stains all over, a few yellowish blotched from her underarms, and a few colour-runs on her chest and sleeves from the tears. She felt gross, to put it simply... utterly gross. And the stench was unbearable, even to her. She rubbed her face rigorously at an attempt to blend those red lines on her face with the rest, but with no avail. The skin was irritated there, and on her entire right cheek. She sighed in defeat, and walked out of the restroom, and headed downstairs to where Mokuba and Roberto were sitting by the electric fireplace, having their heads curled over a game of Chinese checkers.

Mokuba lifted his finger to move, when a sharp, pungent smell pricked his nose. In attempt to get it out, he squeezed his hand over it, and turned his head towards the owner of the smell.

"Tea...?" His hand muffled his questioning voice.

Roberto waved a huge hand in front of his face and whistled in amazement. "You? This esmell is coming from you?" he looked at her red-streaked face "Goodness, child. Go take a shower and get yourself into a new pair of clothes." He coughed at the stench, and pounded his chest with his fist.

"I can't..." she started slowly "I haven't packed anything..."

-0—0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A drop fell from the sky, then more and more came down. Very soon it became an onslaught of rain. The worker men weren't able to hold much longer, and one by one, fled to their homes. Seto sat atop of a ladder, finishing off the waterslide he had started the other day. Luckily for him, he had a rather large breakfast this morning, seeing that he would have to work by himself today. He sighed at everyone's fear of the rain, and continued working. _How cold they fear such weak water?_ He asked himself,_ I'm sure most of them swim, and this is not much drier_. His hands became red and numb, and were slightly bitten by the cold. Being finished with the slide itself, he got down, and walked around it to begin working on the steps. He crouched low to the ground, and started building a hardwood box for the first step.

"KAIBA!" Someone yelled from not so far away. He could hear the splashing of feet in small puddles as whoever it was ran closer...

_Not her again... what does she want from me anyway?_ He did not even look in the direction where the voice was coming from. He simply continued his work with his numb, slightly swollen hands. The splashing stopped, and turned into very light walking.

"What do you want?" he asked with his usually arctic voice, that this time sounded congested. "I already had breakfast today."

Tea crouched down beside him and was thankful his nose was blocked. "Roberto sent me to come get you. Him and Mokuba are both worried."

A droplet of water dripped off his red, congested nose. "I'm fine." He replied grimly, and filled the first step with what seemed like rubbery cement.

"Don't be silly!" Tea hissed, getting rather annoyed by his distant attitude. "When someone offers a hand, you take it... Understand?" She looked at him, expecting him to at least say something, but all he did was continue with his work.

"I don't need anyone's help." He finally replied, his voice colder then the weather, his eyes still focused on his work.

A sudden sneeze made his head bend downward, and when he looked back up, his face was red and puffy, like a child's. That split second was the only time Tea has ever seen Seto without that cold glaze shielding his eyes, but to her dismay, that shield was back as abruptly as it was taken down. She tried looking into his eyes, but as usual, they kept running away. "Why do you never look at anyone in the eye?" she couldn't help asking.

He didn't answer, and kept hammering on the last piece of wood to complete the first box. She grew frustrated at this, but knew her complaints would not even phase Seto Kaiba's strong, cold barrier. She stood up, and turned her back towards him. "I merely came here because Roberto asked me to... if you wont come in because I told you, then come in because Roberto did." And with that, she started down the path once more.

Seto listened as her feet splashing grew farther and farther away. _The nerve..._

-0-0—0—00-0-0-0

Tea had been pacing for two hours already, hoping Seto would at least listen... but NO! The stubborn mule had to stay outside, getting himself sick. Who does he think he is anyway? God? Some sort of invincible man who can never be killed?... if that was the case, he needed a reality check, and bad...

Mokuba and Roberto's heads moved back and forth, in sync with the restless girl's pacing body. Her short brown hair had dried, and looked like a birds nest, and the stench had returned... not as pungent as before, but it was still there, nonetheless. She looked extremely frustrated, and by her shaking fists, clenched jaws, and reddening face, she looked as if she were a bomb, ready to explode.

"I would never thought that after three days, she would be so concerned about the Signor (it was spelled 'Senor' before, I just recently figured out how to spell it.)... Did you, Mokuba?" asked Roberto mindlessly, still following Tea's movements.

Before he could answer, she stopped pacing, and glared knives and daggers at the Spanish cook. The outer shell of the bomb broke, and she exploded. "I DO NOT CARE ABOUT HIM!!" she yelled, and resumed her pacing while biting her thumbnail. "He is as suborn at a mule, and doesn't want to listen to anyone..." she was used to people listening to her when it concerned their safety, and found this kind of behavior most absurd.

"That's Seto." Mokuba confirmed, shocked that after all the duels, and three days she's 'lived' there, she still did not realize that Seto's barrier was indestructible. The clock struck 3:00 and sounded its hourly alarm. Nobody jumped at this sudden sound, being already used to it, or being so caught up in something else that they hardly realized it.

Roberto started taking in a deep breath by his nose, but once he remembered the smell, he continued the breath by his mouth, "Stop worrying about Signor Kaiba, I'll go get him. But for now, go take shower... It you still smell bad, even after you got rained on." He said, not knowing how to pout it in a nicer way.

She looked down out of embarrassment. "No need to rub it in."

"Roberto's right. Even with a blocked nose I can still smell it..." that grave voice made her head turn. She was not expecting him to come in without being dragged. His face looked pale and both his hair and clothes were dripping madly, making soft taps on the wooden floor. Although he wasn't looking at her, he knew she was staring at him... he could feel it. "What are you staring at?"

"N-no, it's just that, I would have never expected you to listen." She said, taking her eyes off him and looking the other way.

"I didn't. I finished with all that needed to be done for today, and came in here." He responded bluntly. "And besides, coming in two hours after your request doesn't count as 'listening'"

There was an awkward silence, in which Tea took the time to scold herself for her stupidity. _Of course! How could I have been so stupid! Kaiba would have never listened! At least not to me anyway._

Seto's sopping wet shoes made squashy sounds as he walked right passed her and stopped before Roberto. "Go take a shower, Gardener." He commanded icily, as he was leaning forward, about to whisper something in Roberto's ear looking rather awkward and uncertain about what was now coming out of his mouth.... Almost as if he was regretting it...

"Fine," she said, and started towards the staircase. "Nobody come in..."

"Tomorrow Signor? Are you..." was the last thing she heard before the loud screeching door drowned out the rest.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tea held out her dirty uniform in front of her, as if it were venomous. She was still in the bathroom, obviously, wrapped in a long white, soft towel. She stared at the 'toxic' uniform pinched between her thumb and index finger, and wondered how she could have worn such rubbish for more than three days straight. It looked disgusting, smelled of rotting feet, and worst of all, was dripping with sweat. If this was her own house, she would have walked out with a towel, but sadly, it wasn't her house, and she certainly did not want leave the bathroom with only a towel on. Sighing at not having any choice in the matter, she got dressed slowly, cringing at every piece of fabric that slid onto her clean skin, feeling as if it dirtied it once more.

Poking her head outside the door, she looked this was and that, seeing if anyone was coming. Satisfied at the abandoned floor, she quickly slipped the guest room, not wanting to go back downstairs now that she realized how unhygienic she had been. She slammed the door with her back, and sighed. She slowly dragged here feet across the carpeted floor, and purposely fell onto the nice, soft bed. The sky was no longer a gray, but was turning into a black. It was still really early, but seeing as there was nothing she could do, she closed her eyes, and waited until she eventually drifted off to sleep....

You know what's funny? I'm updating on my birthday! Can you guess how old I am? If anyone can guess, I'll post two chapters on my next update.

And I appologize this chapter was slow or choppy... getting too may writer blocks, but have no fear, the other two are going to be better.


	6. six

Nightfall2525: all you're questions will be answered later on, except one of them, which will be answered in this chapter. And no, not the one with Yugi and Tea, that one will be found out later….

Everyone! Say thanks to Joey-lover for finding out my age. Yes, I have turned 16. So this time, it'll be a double post, I guess you can call it…. Chapters are a bit of a disappointment though… I expected this to be a lot easier and better then it was… oh well, I tried.

Joey-Lover: I WAS thinking of washing Tea's clothes, but then what will she wear for that time? (My friend had an idea, but I didn't want to post that… it was rather perverted…)

Well! Better get on with this chapter.

_Tea…._ Came a distant voice… _Tea…._

"Yugi?" she asked, connecting the voice with the picture in her mind. Her best friend was running in a sea of soft, hazy colours. His violet eyes have already disappeared into one of those warm smiled of his, and he kept looking back at her, waving his hand for her to come to him… but she was not able to… every step she took, he would move back by five. "Yugi, come back… can't… reach…"

Tea… Tea… 

"Yugi!"

"TEA!" A strong voice roared into her ears, causing her to gasp and wake up immediately. Her back shot upwards and her eyes were practically bulging out from their sockets.

"What?! What? What do you want from me?!" she panicked, not having taken in the real world yet, and still not recognizing the man standing beside her. "Who are you? What have you done with Yugi?" she cried. Her breathing became heavy for a moment, before a plump hand covered her mouth.

"Shhht! Not so loud!" he hissed. "The Signor might here us!"

Tea's expression softened, and her mind calmed down, now being pulled out of dream world and able to take in her surroundings properly. "Roberto?" she asked softly.

His temporarily sharp eyes squinted in frustration. His beard swayed back and forth as he shook his head wildly. "Yes it is me!" he hissed, trying to hold pack his urge to yell. "Just follow me. We haven't much time."

"But where-"

"Ask later, follow now."

She slid out of bed, and followed him out the door. _Daytime already?_ She moaned inwardly, protecting her eyes from the strong sunrays, coming through the large windows.

He led her into the staircase, and down the many flights of stairs. Once on the bottom floor, he rushed her to get her shoes on while he waited at the door. He held the door slightly open with his foot, and started bouncing impatiently. "Come on, Tea, hurry up…" he said to himself through clenched teeth, watching her disappear through the door on the other side of the large room. He kept looking at his watch, wishing she would hurry up. He wanted to leave so badly, that his body itched with impatience. He heard a loud creak and the rest of a noisy echo as she reappeared through the heavy door. She slipped her shoes on as she sprinted across the sunny room, and back into the dim staircase.

"Now what?" she asked, not seeing anywhere else to go but upstairs.

He pointed right passed her at a door, barely visible within the shadows of the walls surrounding it. "That is where my aircraft is." he said, sounding rather proud of himself for having his own aircraft. "Now, come, and close the door gently, to not make so much noise."

Her eyes followed his body, creeping passed her, and opening the door v e r y s l o w l y. His head moved this way and that, while his eyes shifted around, then looking calm, and sure, he waved his hand for her to come in. She winced as her hand touched the freezing steel doorknob, but was sure she didn't let go until it was fully closed. A soft clack couldn't be helped as the door clicked back into its place. She removed her hand slowly as she did not want to make the knob move, and turned her head to look at the craft. She whistled under her breath as the rest of her body followed her head. It certainly was not as impressive as Kaiba's Blue-Eyes aircraft, but was still quite impressive. It was, too, shaped like a dragon, but was more snake-like, and the only thing that would move was its neck. It looked as if it was made out of solid gold, and rubies were used for the eyes. She knew that in reality, it would have to be made out of something lighter, and it's large red eyes were actually windows.

"Isn't she magnificent?" Asked Roberto, admiring the piece with his hands of his hips. "The Signor helped me make it, obviously…" he nodded his head, and stared at it for a little longer, before jerking his head and shoulders and took a step forward. "Well, let's go." As he walked, he took out a golden switch, and pushed a button. A staircase unfolded from the golden dragon, surprisingly without making a sound. With another push of a button, the roof separated into several triangles, and slid into the dark walls.

"Come on!" Roberto bellowed, already in his seat. "Let's go, lets go!"

Tea dashed up the metallic steps, and sat in the passenger's seat. The staircase and the door retreated swiftly and silently. With a jerk of a switch, the machine lifted smoothly, and once they were out, went into a steady hover.

"So, where are we going?" she asked, hoping that this time he'll have an answer for her.

"Into town." He answered, focusing on his radar. "You need new clothes."

"Is Kaiba really letting you spend his money on me? Wow…." She whistled. Knowing Kaiba, he'd never want anyone spend his money 'uselessly,' as he'd say.

"Not his, mine." He said calmly, as if he didn't mind to spend his own salary on someone he's only knows for a few days.

She did not feel comfortable about this. "But, Roberto, you've only kn-"

"Ah! It's no problem. You see, I live with the Signor, I don't have family. I love Signor Kaiba and Mokuba like they are my sons, but I can never get close enough to the older one. Mokuba's always there. He talks to me when he has a problem, he asks me to play tag with him… I guess you can say he is more like the son I never had…" he looked at his radar, and calculated how much time was left of the flight. " So, that brings me to the question: Why spend my money on you? Well, you see, I used to take Mokuba into town all the time, and spoil him with toys and stuff, and the Signor hated it, so we used to sneak out. Now, my little boy is getting too old for those things. I've had no reason to spend my money, but now, I do. This is just getting rid of some extra waste I carry around." He waved his hand around at his last statement.

"Wow…" she said under her breath. He really was a nice man, and she felt awful about taking his money away from him, even after his reason for spending it. "So, you've known the Kaiba brothers their whole lives?"

He heaved a hearty laugh at this. "Well, not their WHOLE lives, only since the day they were adopted by… eh… by… ehmm…." An eyebrow twitched as he struggled to remember the stepfather's name. "Forget it. We're here!" He looked out the window to make sure he did not hit any branches on the way down.

The aircraft landed with a slight jolt, and the two fell out of their seats, while grunting slightly…. But… they both heard a third, high-pitched grunt, along with theirs.

"Did you hear that?" Tea hissed, suddenly worried.

Roberto rolled his eyes. "MOKUBA!" he yelled with his face slightly turned to the back.

As if to answer, a swift, black blur fell out of a small closet right behind Roberto's seat. "Sorry…" was the sweet, innocent apology muffled by the floor. "It's just… I didn't have anything better to do… so… I decided to join you…" he looked up at them, his black eyes wide, and pleading for them to take him along.

Roberto looked at him with intimidating eyes for a second, then they softened and he smiled at the black-haired boy. "No problem, just be patient, first we get clothes for Tea."

"Ok!" he said, and nodded.

The three descended from the unfolded stairway. Tea looked around at the thick forest around them. "Why have we landed here?" she wanted to know, as she kept eyeing the tall trees.

"Because don't you think we'll attract a little too much attention if we'd have landed in the town?" He chuckled, revealing his crooked teeth. He put a hand one her back, and the other on Mokuba's and pushed them onward. "Come, come, we don't want to take too long."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Go! Faster, faster!" Seto ordered his worker men. They had fallen behind yesterday because of the rain, and Seto did not want to waste anymore time. He wanted to start the electricity by tomorrow, but seeing that there was still much work to do, he would have to wait another two days. "I want another waterslide, a few more rides, a haunted house and a playground." He bellowed out his commands. "This has all got to be done by tomorrow, so we can start on the electricity, the painting and the finishing touches." he at least wanted to TRY and get this done by tomorrow, although he knew it wouldn't be possible. "This whole park has to be done by next week Tuesday. Do I make myself clear?"

"But, Sir, that gives us only six days to finish." One man complained from the top of a ladder. A few whistled at this comment, knowing better then to aggravate the boss, especially at this time, now that he is uptight.

"Exactly…" he said dangerously, as his cold eyes narrowed into piercing slits. "Better get to work then…"

Speed of the hammerings increased, showing that they all understood. Seto sighed and rubbed his head out of frustration. He flopped down next to a finished Ferris-Wheel, and wiped his red, sweaty face. He was still astonished at how anyone can fear the rain so much, and abandon an important job, when they knew he had such an important deadline. If this amusement park was not done by the time the festivities come, he will not be able to handle the humiliation. (0.o Yup, he is too out of character… but I cannot do anything about it… I'm not very good at those kinds of things.)

He watched his worker men hammer away, on wood and plastic alike, while others were smelting metal. _They seem to be working alright… maybe there is hope after all…_

He let out a soft grunt as he heaved himself to his feet, and went to help out the others, just to pick up the pace a little.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tea whistled at all the little shops and restaurants, and started to feel nervous at all the people flooding the area.

"Well, let's go." Said Roberto, and took a step, but didn't take anymore, for he had realized Tea was not following him. "What's wrong, child"

"It's… it's just… there are so many people, and-" she started, but was cut off by Roberto and Mokuba clamping their hands around her wrists, and started dragging her.

"These are people, not dogs. They wont stop and smell you." Roberto grunted in frustration, as Mokuba nodded in approval, and they both pulled her through the large, cramped, stuffy crowd. This place was like an outdoor mall, with no roads or streets for cars to pass, so one can only imagine how crowded it could get.

They were pushed, and shoved, then finally spewed out from the edgy mob, and accidentally stumbled through two heavy glass doors. Roberto rubbed his head, for he was the one who wound up opening the door with his head. Tea was lucky enough to be the one following him, and not hurting anything. She started giggling when she heard the two hard objects collide, and was now on the floor bursting with laughter.

"Oh… my… god!!" she said between laughs, trying her best not to let them interfere with her speech. "That… was… so…. AHAHA" she couldn't finish… it was impossible for her to talk at this moment with so much laughter being hulled out of her lungs.

At that moment, Mokuba burst through the doors, hoping to get a glimpse at what Tea was cracking up about. "What? What have I missed?"

Unable to speak just yet, Tea pointed a finger in Roberto's way, and kept holding her now pained side while she rolled around on the floor, literally laughing her guts out.

Roberto had a blank, yet embarrassed look on his face. "Are you through yet?" he grumbled while he hid his face with his worn-out suede jacket.

The laughing had turned into giggles, and soon stopped. She cleared her throat before she was able to speak again. "Yes, I'm finished." She said as she whipped a tear away with her pinkie, still on the floor on her stomach.

She froze when she noticed a tapping foot right next to her face. The foot led up to a pink-haired woman who was taking out her frustration on a piece of bubblegum. "Excuse me, but if you're going to roll around on my floor, I'd rather you leave." She blew a bubble, the colour of the gum matching her hair perfectly.

Tea cleared her throat again, and answered hoarsely. "Yes, sorry." She stood up, and dusted herself off. Having rolled around on the floor, and being completely blinded by laughter, she had not been able to look at the store properly. She had to squint her eyes from the gleaming floors, and bright-coloured clothes. Her first impression of this store was it was too colourful, but it was, as a matter of fact, quite a large store and she decided to look around here for a moment, before leaving the store to relieve her now aching eyes.

The large bubble popped, causing Tea to jump slightly. "Well, are you going to look around, or just stand there all day?" the pink-haired woman asked, still smacking away at her gum.

Tea nodded, and started walking down one of the isles.

Roberto looked down at the younger Kaiba, and they both sighed… this will be a l o n g day.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- (no body needs to know how Tea went shopping….)

They walked out of a restaurant after having a late lunch. Roberto put a hand on his full stomach, Mokuba was jumping around, not able to stand still one moment longer, and Tea just laughed at the boy's hyperness, wearing one of the new outfits she bought: a mild purple t-shirt with indigo jeans, fitting comfortably on her slim physique.

She took a deep breath, and pushed it out in a heavy sigh. After many hours of non-stop walking, she was ready to sleep standing up. She looked at the two males in front of her, and followed them mindlessly, carrying at least five huge bags of clothing.

Mokuba was so energetic… he was talking and babbling "so we're going to the park, and then to the arcade, and then…. And then… and then…" while he was bouncing around on his feet.

Roberto was looking down at him, and smiled, as if he knew what the kid was even saying. "Ok, ok, no problem…" he said over and over again.

Her numb legs had led her to a park. She saw a bench, and headed straight for that, while the other two ran around on the huge field of dried grass. She flopped down onto the wooden bench with a satisfactory sigh, and stretched her legs out in front of her. She looked up at a clock tower not far away from her. It read 3:02. _Four hours of non-stop shopping…_ she thought, and mentally whistled. _Who'd have thought it would be this long… and tiring?_ She looked up again, at nothing in particular, as afternoon sun hit her face. It was so warm… so soothing… so…. So peaceful. She was so much at ease at that moment that everything was pushed aside. Nothing mattered to her anymore. It was as if the sun absorbed all of her problems, and hulled her away from reality and back into dream world.

A sudden hand grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up and out of the sun's way. Reality hit her again, but the pains of life were still temporarily forgotten.

"Mokuba?" she asked, wanting to know what he precisely wanted.

"Come on, Tea play with us!" He chimed, his eyes full of joy and mirth.

"I don't know…" she answered, quite unsure if her legs would be willing to take her anywhere for the next few days.

"Aw, come on… please…?" he looked at her with the most irresistible face ever, that she thought she'd shoot herself, had she turned him down.

"Oh, alright." She said, giving in. No wonder why he's Seto's weakness. He can manipulate anyone, even if it means forcing down an unbreakable barrier.

He chuckled playfully, and sped off. Roberto waddled towards her. "He's in your hands now." He wheezed, and sat down stiffly on the bench near her bags.

The corner of her mouth lifted to a smile, as she scanned the area for the little black-haired boy. She found him while he was running all over, laughing like a hyena. "Alright, Mokuba…" she said under her breath. "Time for you to be caught!" she growled aloud as she sprinted after the boy.

Roberto watched the happy scene gleefully. His beady brown eyes squinted in a smile. _They look so happy…_ a happy tear rolled down his cheek. _If only I had a family of my own._ He sighed and swiped the tears of his face. Tea had caught up to Mokuba, and started attacking him with endless tickles. He fell to the ground, and she dropped to her knees to continue the tickle-torture. Even she was laughing at his non-stop laughter.

An old lady with a wooden cane sat down next to him, with a bunch of tissues in her hand. "Lovely day, isn't it?" she asked lively, before blowing her nose loudly.

Roberto grimaced at the viscous noise, and nodded in response.

"Yes… as I thought." The old woman replied, then pushed a heavy, wet sneeze that landed all over Roberto.

"Ok Kids," he bellowed suddenly, just wanting to get home and wash himself from the germs that were just sprayed all over him. "We're leaving in ten minutes!" He got off the bench, and attempted to wipe all the spit from him. He looked down at the elderly woman when she was too busy blowing her nose (again) and shook his head.

(no, this is NOT a useless part… you'll see what happens…)

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tea walked up the stairs to the bedroom floor with Mokuba, while Roberto went into the kitchen to make supper.

"Wasn't today fun?" the kid's energetic voice echoed throughout the long, dark stairway.

"Fun…. But tiring… I feel a little bad though." She said, her eyes on her feet "I spent a lot of Roberto's money today. I didn't even know I was going to buy so much!"

"Don't worry about it. He offered didn't he?" the echo's quieted as they stepped out of the staircase and onto the floor. Mokuba leaned on the railing surrounding the huge gap in the middle of the round floor.

"Yea…" she sighed. "But I'm sure Kai….ba…" her eyes grew suddenly, as she forgot Kaiba was bound to know she got all this stuff. I mean, who wouldn't? She was no longer in her smelly old uniform, but in brand new clothes! This was not something she'll be able to keep quiet. "Mokuba, what will happen when your brother finds out about this? Will he get angry at Roberto?" she tugged at her hair. "Ooh, this is all my fault. What if Roberto looses his job…..?"

Mokuba stared blankly at the stressing teenager before him. _She takes things way too seriously_. He stated mentally, as the sight before him confirmed his thoughts. Of course Seto will forgive Roberto. He's been like a father to them. "Tea…" he said, at an attempt to calm her down, but her rambling wouldn't stop. "Tea." He said more firmly, but still, she was too caught up in her own anxiety to even notice him. "TEA!" he shouted, and grabbed the back of her shirt to catch her attention. She froze, and turned to face him. "Stop taking things so seriously. Roberto will be fine, don't worry."

The front door opened loudly, indicating Seto's return. Tea squeaked from anxiety, but Mokuba clapped his hand over her mouth before her downpour of jabbering could start again.

"Just say that your parents sent it over, or something." He said, as the heavy door to the staircase creaked open from the floors below.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

_Well, today wasn't completely useless._ He thought with an inward sigh, as he started up the dark staircase. His face was tomato-red, as usual, and he was sweating so much, that it looked as if he had jumped into a swimming pool. His worker men, and himself, at least got the biggest art of the job done: making the skeletons of the rides. They even finished off most of the haunted house. He had to nod approvingly at this, thinking that he would have hardly gotten anything done by the end of this day. Maybe he would be able to start on the electricity tomorrow, if all goes well.

He reached out for the doorknob when he heard a loud screech. A familiar one, which reminded him of his unwanted company. This surely pulled him out of his unnoticeable good mood.

"What's with the noise?" he asked harshly, as he burst through the heavy door. He found Tea pushing herself up onto the railing, kicking her foot in front of her, whimpering as she pointed to the dangerous creature that sounded like it was attacking her.

"There's a spi-" before she could finish, she found a large, strong foot crushing the poor helpless bug, and was now grinding it with the heel of his shoe. She suddenly felt a great amount of pity for the small, powerless creature.

"It's a thousand times smaller then you are. Surely, it must be more afraid of you then you are of it." He said coldly, refusing to look in her direction.

Tea could find no answer to this. She pushed herself from the railing, and headed towards a restroom.

Something caught his eye… she looked different. "Wait a second," he stopped her strictly "where did you get those clothes?"

Uh oh…. This was what she feared… "Erm… my… er, my parents sent it over. They're uh…. Getti- getting worried about me, yea, that's it."

Mokuba, who was looking from his slightly opened door, slapped his head with frustration. _Tea… you are one terrible liar…_

Seto gave her an uncertain look, but dismissed her anyway with a slight nod of his head.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Roberto." She heard a muffled voice as she stood outside Seto's office, late that night.

"Yes, Signor?" she heard the other man ask timidly.

Their voices were suddenly drowned out by a long flush of a toilet…. It dragged on…. And on…. And finally stopped. Through that loud noise, however, she was able to hear their voices. Kaiba didn't sound angry at Roberto, in fact, he seemed rather warm towards him…. Then again, his emotions were unreadable, so it was almost impossible for her to tell.

"Ok signor, thank you, signor." She heard the older man say, then he sneezed nosily. She froze when realizing how close he was to the door, from the opposite side, of course.

At the strong twirl of the doorknob, she sprinted across the small floor, and ran up the staircase as fast as her legs would take her, and wouldn't stop until she landed safely in her bed. After a long yawn, she pushed a great sigh of relief. _Good…. Roberto's still got his job._

With her concerns being lifted, she drifted off into a deep sleep.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Well, there's the first part of this update. Coming up next: Roberto gets sick. Who will replace him in the kitchen? How will the others react?

Oh! And this is my friend, Judo.

Judo:** -waves-**

He is the one who made up a different version to this chapter, but it was quite perverted, and I didn't really want to post that…. Anyway, he'll be here for a while (parents made me share my computer… damn!) , and might say a few random things… just ignore him though…

Judo: HEY!! Hullo?! I'm right here…** -still trying to catch one's attention-**

Just ignore the annoying pervert.

Judo: All right, that's it, no more mister nice-guy. **Gets up and grabs Pyro (me) by the arms, and pins to a wall. **Let's see you get out of this one…

**_Screen blackens… having some technical difficulties… please stand by… _**

BASH 

Judo's voice: CRAP! My bal-

Pyro's voice: Shut your trap. What in the bloody furnaces of hell were you thinking anyway?

Judo's voice: That, milady, is something you'll never understand. **–Said in a husky whisper-**

SLAP Having a little more difficulties… please stand by… 

Judo: enough with the 'please stand by's already.

Pyro: Hush!

Second part will be up soon, so be patien with me... you can review to this one in the meantime.


	7. seven

16…. Freaking…. Pages…. BLOODY HELL'S FIRE!

Part II:

The early-morning sunlight poured into his room through the drawn blinds, which flapped around from the open windows. The round man rolled over to the other side, at an attempt to escape the lights, then tried to squeeze if from his eyes, but did not succeed. He brought a hand lazily to his face, and rubbed it sleepily, having a slight headache. He slightly lifted up his body, by sliding his elbows under his back, then used the rest of his arm's strength to fully push it upward into a sitting position. He sat there, slightly slouched, for no longer then one moment before he screamed in agony.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A deep cry awoke them both. In complete synchronisation, they grabbed their night robes, and pulled it over their shoulders. They ran out of their rooms, and collided in the middle of the floor.

Tea grunted and fell to the ground, while Seto stared at her, with his permanent cold gaze. "Watch were you're going." He said, while gingerly patting the spot on his chest she had rammed into.

Tea looked at him in disbelief. "Me?!" she hissed, while rubbing her head. _wow… he's strong…_ . It took a while to sizzle down. "What were you doing, coming this way anyway?"

He turned his back to her with a stubborn grunt in response, and walked towards the stairs. "That yell came from Roberto." He said, completely ignoring her question with the slightest amount of concern in his voice.

"Aren't you at least a LITTLE concerned?" she snapped, getting more then a little annoyed at his aloofness. "That was no ordinary scream. That must've hurt A LOT."

"What do you know?" the sharp cold in his voice made Goosebumps peak on her skin. He took the last few steps toward the door, then disappeared within its darkness.

She just stood there, trying her hardest to not explode at that moment, but Kaiba's distant attitude was really getting on her nerves. "WHY DON'T YOU ANSWER PROPERLY!!" she roared, taking all her anger out on that sentence.

-0—0-0-0-0-0-

"OW OW OW OW OW!!" he howled, pressing his hands firmly on his ears. The pounding in his head increased dramatically, thanks to that last bit of noise. He sneezed, and pushed another yelp of pain.

Seto looked at him with slight pity, but really, he was quite annoyed at this.

"Roberto!" Tea yelled, barging into the room. Her eyes were wide with concern.

"Ack! Shht! Not so loud." He hissed, as his eyebrow twitched from the immense pain in his head.

"You shouldn't get out of bed today." She commanded as she walked closer to his bed, but an arm sturdily stopped her from getting any closer. She glared at Seto before continuing. "You're sick, and need some rest."

"But-" he started, before being interrupted.

"Don't worry, I'll cook instead." She insisted, as if she could read his exact thoughts. _If only I knew how…_ She suddenly felt stupid. Now she knows why it's dangerous to speak before you think. Well, what is done is done. She pushed Seto's arm aside, walked up to his bed and pushed him back down. "Don't worry. Rest. I'll take care of it."

Seto cleared his throat in refusal, but before he could say a word, Tea was already pushing him out of the room.

"Rest well, Roberto." She said friendlily and gently closed the door behind her. "Well," she started energetically, with amusement painted all over her face. But, once she saw that look on his face, her expression melted into nothing.

His eyes were unreadable. The worst state they can be in. She could not tell if he was going to kill her, or silently nod her off. She waited in suspense for him to say something. By the moment's tension and that slowly burning fire in his eyes, she could feel it was not going to be pleasant.

Without a word, he turned his back to her and walked away. _Not again…_ she grumbled inwardly.

"Say something, Kaiba." She demanded silently, eager to know what was on his mind.

"Go to work." He commanded. He did not even turn his head to say it, and walked away again. "I'll be down at eight o-clock." He finished, before disappearing through the door again.

She sighed in defeat. He'll never say anything besides commands. She peaked at the clock showing through Roberto's not-fully-closed door. She had two hours to prepare something for the Kaiba brothers, and doesn't even know how to cook… this was not going to be fun…

-0-0-0-0-0-0 In the kitchen –0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Ok, so where to start…." She whispered to herself, peering at all the kitchen appliances in the white, shiny room as her voice softly echoed. Her head sank into her shoulders. "How am I ever going to pull this off…." She mumbled more then asked.

Not finding any use in just standing there, she searched the many drawers for a bowl, some flower, and a fork. Pots and pans clanked on the ground as she shoved them aside to find a bowl of some sort. Finally, after an unknown period of time, she found one after a lot of looking and shoving.

The flour wasn't too hard to find, but by the time she found the cutlery drawer, mounds of metallic and plastic appliances alike were piled up. Sky-high.

"I'll fix that later." She said, always to herself. "Now, better get started on those pancakes."

She dumped the flour into the bowl, and mixed it with water, then looked around for some other ingredients to add some "flavour" to it. She was at it for a while, just mixing and stirring and adding. When her mixture was finally done, she kept mixing until her hand got tired, not knowing when exactly to stop. She picked a frying pan from one of the many heaps of metal, and put it on the stove. _Hmmm…. How warm should I make it…? They definitely want their breakfast hot, so…._ She turned the knob all the way to the highest temperature, and waited a few minutes before splattering on the lumpy mixture.

She sighed and clapped some flour from her hands. "There, all done." She said, as if it was no big deal. She took a peak at the watch: 7:55. "And not a moment too soon." She turned back to the stove and flipped the pancakes.

"ROBERTO!" she heard Mokuba call from the dining room.

Trying to be right on queue, she swiftly turned everything off, flopped the pancakes onto newly found plates, found some fruit to put on the side of the plates, and walked out of the room with their meals.

"ROBER-" Mokuba started to yell, squeezing his eyes shut, but when he opened them while yelling his name, he realized it was not Roberto at all. "Tea?"

"Roberto is sick today." She declared, while setting the plate down in front of him, and made her way toward Seto. "So I decided to help out. I've done nothing since I came here, so, I thought it would be better to help."

Mokuba looked down at his plate suspiciously, wondering if he should eat it or not. It sure did not look too good, but sometimes looks can be deceiving. He looked up at the smiling Tea, and swallowed hard.

"You expect me to eat this?" Seto asked with a nasty bit of disbelief.

Tea's smile immediately disappeared, and gave Seto a murderous glare. "Why ask? It's in front of you, isn't it? Do you think I put it there for show?"

Seto snorted and thrust his nose in the air. "Well, Gardener, let's just say I do not eat dirt."

Her fist started to shake angrily at this last statement, but she forced herself to hold back a slap in the face. _Maybe one day… but not now…_ "Well, Kaiba, let's just say you'll need it today. Wouldn't want me interrupting your precious work, now would you?" she smirked, knowing that the one thing he hated most was to be interrupted while he was in the middle of something important.

This seemed to keep his trap shut… well then again, he never really opened it unless it was needed. Tea sighed, and headed toward the room's exit. "I'm going to check on Roberto." She said, and left the room.

The two brothers looked at each other and gulped. "You think we should eat it, Seto?" Mokuba asked, and gulped loudly once more. "Looks CAN be deceiving, you know…"

Seto look down at his plate disgustedly. Roberto has always made such fine looking dishes, and they tasted as good as they looked, but this…. This barely even looked like food. He hesitantly leaned his face closer and closer to the dish. He closed his eyes and took a whiff. "Doesn't smell too bad…" he said quietly, but loud enough for Mokuba to hear. He lifted his head up and straightened out his posture at the same time.

"So… do you think…?" Mokuba asked, he did not finish his sentence, but the rest was quite obvious.

Seto looked at his younger brother. "Well… I guess it wont hurt…"

"I- I'm only eating it if you do!" Insisted Mokuba as he stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest.

Seto sighed. "Fine, fine…" He cleared his throat as he looked down at the plate. He slowly cut off a piece and brought the fork to his mouth. He gave it one last unsure look, before finally putting it into his mouth.

"Well?" asked Mokuba, not even a second after his older brother put the 'unknown substance' into his mouth. He didn't seem to be grossed out at all, but, then again, the taste probably hadn't registered yet…

-0-0-0-0-0-

His face suddenly turned red and cringed and he coughed loudly, then pounded his chest with a large, heavy fist. "Thank you, Tea." Roberto said, once the coughing had ceased.

"Don't mention it…" she said while patting the heavy man on his back. "Would you like something to eat?"

He sniffled and sneezed, then gave a slight yelp of pain. "ehm… no, I'm ok. So, how'd it go?"

"Erm…" she started sheepishly. "I- I don't really know, actually. I guess it was all right. I'm not too sure though…"

"Well, keep up the good work." He said drowsily, and pulled the covers back over his aching head. "I'm sure you're doing fine…"

Tea blushed at this. _If only he knew…_ she shook the last thought away as another one hit her suddenly. "One thing is puzzling me though… how did you get this cold all of a sudden? You seemed fine yesterday."

Roberto fingered his beard as he searched his thoughts and memories of what might have caused this. "I don't know, really…" he said, as if he has given up looking through his mind, when by the tone of voice, Tea could tell his mind was still focused on that.

"Well, I better get back to the Kaiba brothers, I want to see how I've done…" she said, and turned around to leave, when she heard him clap suddenly, as if a thought had just hit him smack on the head.

_An old lady with a wooden cane sat down next to him, with a bunch of tissues in her hand. "Lovely day, isn't it?" she asked lively, before blowing her nose loudly._

_Roberto grimaced at the viscous noise, and nodded in response. _

_"Yes… as I thought." The old woman replied, then pushed a heavy, wet sneeze that landed all over Roberto._

"_Ok Kids," he bellowed suddenly, just wanting to get home and wash himself from the germs that were just sprayed all over him. "We're leaving in ten minutes!" He got off the bench, and attempted to wipe all the spit from him. He looked down at the elderly woman when she was too busy blowing her nose (again) and shook his head. _

"So THAT'S how I got it!" he snapped. "If this is what that woman's going through, I feel sorry for her…"

"What woman?" Tea asked as she turned her head around slightly.

"Oh, nothing. Just something I've figured out…"

"Ok." She replied, and left.

-0-0-0-0-

"Hullo? Earth to Seto!" he said. Mokuba waved a hand in front of his dazed brother. His older brother did not look at him however. His face was frozen… not frozen as in cold… frozen in a weird sort of expressionless daze. His eyes were on the verge of becoming swirls, and his mouth was still clamped onto the fork, which was still being pinched so tightly between his index finger and thumb that it was trembling. Mokuba had also noticed a greenish tinge appearing on his cheeks. "Aw. Come on Seto! It can't be THAT bad?"

"Well, how is it?" came a female's voice. Tea had just walked into the room, and hadn't noticed the dazed Seto.

As if on queue, Seto suddenly shook his head violently. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU PUT IN THERE?!" He barked, his eyes quickly turning red and starting to tear fromstill having that horrid taste in his mouth. "It's despicable!" He spat the "food" out while he spoke.

Tea gulped and looked down at her feet from embarrassment. _I knew this was a bad idea…_

Seto huffed and puffed a bit more, then calmed down and cleared his throat. "Go wake up Roberto, tell him I want him down this instant."

"Kaiba…" Tea started, her voice was slightly more high-pitched then usual and unreadable. "HE'S SICK YOU JERK!!" she exploded in his face, yet he did not even flinch. "I'll try again."

"No need." He replied coldly, "I've got backup." He finished off, pulling out his mini cell phone. He flipped the cover open and pushed a few numbers. He pressed the small device on his ear and listened to the ringing. He tapped his foot impatiently when no one answered and hung up. He punched in a second set of numbers and repeated the routine. He started pacing when the ringing started, and to his unseen delight, someone answered.

"Yea, hi, Kaiba calling. May I speak with Maude?" he asked professionally with his back straight, looking high and mighty. He cleared his throat before saying a refined "thank you." He started pacing again while he waited for Maude to answer the phone. He listened to the ruckus of Maude's six squealing daughters at the other end of the line and had to pull the phone away from his ear at one point.

"HALLO?" someone screamed into the other end with a thick, harshaccent. (Judo: WE'RE GOING WORLDWIDE, MAN!! Pyro (me): just ignore him… back to the story.) Seto had to pull his phone away again, before titling it cautiously against his ear.

He cleared his throat again. "Maude, it's Kaiba, I've got-"

"OH! Mister KAIBA!" she suddenly cut off, which made him want to pull the phone away once more, but he resisted. Any more of this spontaneous yelling, and his eardrum would surely shatter into pieces. "I haven't heard from you in a vhile now! How's it gowving?"

"Erm…it's going fine. Listen, I need-"

"SHADDAP YOU STUPID BLOND!!" he heard her yell at one of her daughters. He clenched his fists tightly and was starting to get really annoyed at how she would always cut him off. Not to mention the theory about his eardrums shattering was slowly taking effect. "NO! HE DOES NOT VANT TO TALK TO YOU! GET AVAY!"

Seto winced again at her sudden, harsh voice. This always happened whenever he would call her house. It was always loud at the other end, and she would always end up screaming at her daughters for trying to talk to him. She may have been an excellent cook, but she seemed like a very difficult mother.

"Oh. I'm sorry Kaiba dear. Now, vat vas it you vanted?" She asked him nicely, as if that woman screaming at her daughters was a completely different person.

"Roberto is sick today, and I need some help in the kitchen…" He braced himself for more yelling, but was pleasantly surprised.

Tea looked at his turned back as he explained the situation for whoever it was at the other end. He had shot a few glances at her, his cold eyes wondering what, exactly, she was staring at. She looked his way in a sort of desperate way, almost asking him to let her try once again, and that person he was now calling was taking her chances away from her.

"Ok, thank you, bye."

A beep sounded from his small phone as he turned around to face her and Mokuba again. "Maude will be here soon." He told Mokuba and completely ignored Tea.

"Maude?" he groaned. "She never lets me do anything… she nags all the time, that old bat…"

"Well, it's either that, or we'll be eating dirt for the next few days." He said, as he shot a cold stare at Tea, which sent a chill down her back and made her instantly feel like she was stranded on a block of ice in the arctic sea. "Gardener, go clean up the kitchen, and make sure it's done before Maude gets here."

"Yes, boss…" she grumbled all the way to the kitchen and disappeared through the door.

Seto put his hands on Mokuba's shoulders, and looked at him sternly in the eye. "I don't want to here that you've made any trouble for Maude, understand?" he hissed warningly.

"But I'm never able to do anything when she's here." He complained and drove his eyes away from his brother's to get a full look at his face. He noticed that he was still a little green from before.

"I don't care." He said slowly, allowing him to digest what he was saying properly. He tore his hands from his brother and whipped his back to him. "I'm going to work." He said and exited with Mokuba following close behind.

Tea groaned at the whole jumble of metal and plastic sitting provocatively before her. She felt helpless just by looking at the huge mess, and leaned on the wall for support. _This is going to take a long time…_ she groaned inwardly as she slid down the wall and onto the floor. She took a deep breath and conjured up the strength… and willpower… to get up and going.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-00-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Sir Kaiba, you don't look so good today." One of the worker men said, with a hand pressed on his boss's back, and his face uncomfortably close to Seto's greenish one.

"I'm fine." He said bluntly and shoved his forearm into the man's stomach to push him away. "And I'd greatly appreciate it if you did NOT touch me! Get back to work!" he suddenly barked at the poor man. T'was quite the sight, really. A seventeen year old bossing a man of twice his age… but that's how it worked in this company.

Seto placed a hand on his stomach, and gripped it tightly as he somewhat hoped his nails digging into the skin would distract him from the queasiness. He gripped harder as he felt a gas bubble come up in his throat. He swallowed it back down and took a deep breath, hoping the fresh air would get rid of it… well, it DID make him feel better.

"The playground and haunted house are finished, sir." One of the worker men called out. (I know, the building is going way too fast, but I really haven't the time or patience to keep building and building.)

He nodded his head, and kept working on a mini roller coaster for kids. He was happy they were finally making progress. He was also pleased that he had decided to hire a lot more men, to speed up the pace a little. While he worked on that roller coaster, a few other men were working on another water slide, and he had several others work on the other rides. He took out his drill, and started building a kid-friendly cart to go around on the already finished rails.

From his ladder, he was able to see a short figure waddling toward the mansion with a slight limp in the left leg. _Finally, she's here._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Tea struggled to put back all the appliances, for there were so many, and she did not know what went where. She ran this way and that, holding the same appliance for minutes before she had finally found a proper place to put it… in her eyes anyway. To her delight, though, she noticed the pile getting smaller and smaller. Yet, it still did not ease her struggle at all, and not long after, did she find herself in the same condition she was in before she started to clean: Reluctant, tired, and thought there was no way she'd be able to get this jumble cleaned.

"If this is what Roberto has to go through, I feel kind of sorry for him…" She said to herself, knowing that no one was there listening and that her echoing voice would not get passed these tiled walls. She brought her forearm to her red head and swiped a few droplets of sweat that appeared on her forehead. That's when she noticed a round, slightly lop-sided figure standing in the doorway. She instantly froze, for she had never really expected someone new to arrive, and this quickly at that.

"I am sure he does not go through zis, because Roberto actually knows vhere to put zeese sings." Said the figure with a harsh tint in her voice. "Look at the mess you've made! This'll take me long to clean!" she scolded at Tea.

Tea gulped and instantly felt embarrassed. "I'm sorry…" she said softly as her eyes instantly glued to the floor.

"So you're ze von who made mister Kaiba sick… vat's your name, girl?"

"Tea Gardener." She said instantly and straightened herself out as if speaking to an army captain, feeling way too intimidated by this woman's ruthless voice.

The lopsided woman limped stiffly into the long kitchen and walked closer and closer to the rigid and somewhat nervous Tea. As she got closer, Tea was able to see her face more clearly. She was rather old, Tea figured, with thin, lifeless grey hair and really baggy and tired looking eyes with round, large spectacles magnifying all of the imperfections around the eye area. The woman's skin looked as if it was melting off the bones of her face, and one side of her mouth drooped downward. The woman poked her face into Tea's, until it got uncomfortably close. Needless to say, Tea was much more intimidated and forced herself from slapping the old bat away.

"Hmm…. You're not too bad looking... not bad at all." She said, while adjusting her glassed, which had slipped down her nose. She then grabbed Tea's face firmly between her fingers and jerked it left and right. "Nice skin, too." She added, then finally let go of her face.

It took a lot of willpower for Tea to get up and cleaning, but keeping still while an intimidating old woman stuck her face into hers felt like it took much more. "Thank you," she said, too distracted by the woman's rotting breath to know what else to say. The spots where her face was painfully held tingled and felt like they were swelling up.

Finally, she pulled back and let Tea have her own breathing space. Tea took in a deep breath of air, and cherished it for a moment and thanked god she was no longer breathing in rotting breath. "So, vat vere you doving in here anyvay?" she asked a little nicer.

"Well, as you know, Roberto's sick-" she started off, but was brutally cut off.

"I know he's sick! Mister Kaiba explained zis to me already… go on…" Had she not just been hired by Kaiba, Tea would have thought she was schizophrenic by the way her voice had changed from harsh to soft in the same breath.

"Well, I thought I would help." Tea wanted to avoid rambling and get out of there. "I didn't think right, and I'm sorry to leave you with all this work." She politely bowed her head and slowly turned on her heels to head for the doorway, when a rough "vhere do you sink your goving?" cut her off.

"You vill help me here until zis mess is cleaned… and zen maybe I'll be able to help you make somesing for tonight's evening meal." The old woman gave a wink. "Kaiba doesn't need to know about it… does he?"

Tea was completely confused by this woman's double personality, but decided not to question it further. She had just been offered cooking lessons, how can she turn this down? She peaked over her shoulder at the short woman standing not so far behind her and nodded her head. Maybe this old bat wasn't so bad after all.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A soft knock was heard from the door. "What?" Roberto demanded in reply from the bed as he turned off the television to properly hear what that person wanted to say.

Mokuba walked in softly and lightly closed the door behind him. "Roberto? How are you feeling?" He asked, the concern in his eyes gleaming within the shaded room. He walked closer cautiously, making sure he did not bump or trip over anything.

"Well, I'm not fine, that's for certain." He said with a slight grunt as he shifted around, sick with that position he's been in for quite a while now.

"Oh…" said Mokuba with a slight bit of disappointment. He hoped he would have gotten better already so not he, nor Tea would have to be stuck with Maude… Just thinking about that poor girl, alone in the kitchen with her made his skin crawl. He didn't even like being around her, let alone in the same room... which is why he's decided to stay up stairs with Roberto.

"So, how did young Tea do in the kitchen today?" he asked, somewhat expecting what was coming next. He didn't really have to ask that for he had heard his young master's barks all morning long, but right now, he was getting bored and needed a little it of company.

"Er…" he started to answer, and sounded as if he were wincing rather then ansering a question. "She, er… made an, um, interesting dish…"

Roberto could practically here the boy's face cringing while he spoke. "So I guess Maude is here now?" Seeing Mokuba's shadowy head move toward the floor was a clear enough answer. "Good luck to you, then." He sniggered playfully at the kid's unfortunate situation.

"Hey!" Mokuba shot back, with that same hint of playfulness in his voice, and latched out an arm at Roberto, completely forgetting he was sick until the moment he hit him.

-0—0-0-0-0-0

Down in the kitchen, where Tea and Maude were rearranging the mess Tea had made, they both heard a deep roar from the floors above.

"Vat vas zat?" Maude asked, immediately jerking a cooking spoon over her shoulder, as if holding a sword.

This was something Tea had to laugh at… of course, Roberto's growl sounded slightly inhuman, but she didn't find it necessary to hold up a spoon for a weapon, especially since the noise came from above. Plus, she thought Maude had already known Roberto from before, and if that was the case, she was sure she had heard him growl like he did. It was something he often did… weather he was in pain, annoyed or simply growling for the heck of it, it was always the same.

"Why? Don't you know?" Tea asked with a slight hint of amusement. She knew she was being cruel, but seeing this woman paranoid was rather funny, and she had no other source of entertainment at the moment, so… why not?

"Vat to you mean 'don't you know' ?! I voulden't be asking if I did, no?" Her fists started shaking. Whether it was from rage, fear or determination to kill the beast up stairs, it was impossible to tell… well, at least until Maude had broken into a fit of violent words. "I'll smack him! I'll vack him! I'll rip his brains out! I'll…." She said this while waving the spoon around as if it were a sword and smacking and hitting tables and kitchen appliances.

"Oh boy…." Tea said silently at the pitiful scene being played out before her. She better stop this before the mess reappears and they'd have to start over again. "Maude…" she started out blankly "Maude…. MAUDE!" she finally yelled.

The woman instantly stopped and looked in the youth's direction.

"That was Roberto…" Tea pointed out.

Maude looked at the spoon she was so violently waving round then at Tea and invisibly flushed from embarrassment. "Oh…" she cleared her throat before continuing. "I- em- I knew zat… yea… NOW CLEAN ZIS MESS YOU'VE MADE!"

Tea's head and shoulders dropped as she sighed heavily. "Yes ma'am."

Maude was pointing right at the now smaller pile as the teenager followed the direction of her arm reluctantly. "Zis time, I'm not goving to do anysing. I vatch you clean, and correct you if you make mistake." She found two chairs, and sat on one of them, and used the other to support her feet. "Go."

Maude watched and scolded at Tea, who had been running around trying to find a place for each and every appliance, for a long time while she relaxed with her feet up, reading a newly found newspaper upside-down. Tea knew she was just trying to make her jealous, but seeing the old woman read upside down just made her want to laugh, yet trying to force those laughs down did not help at all. Sometimes she just froze until she was able to relax again, and that consumed quite a bit of time and caused the time to clean up to elongate.

"So… you've finally finished…" said Maude more, to the clean and spotless kitchen then to Tea. "Good job."

Tea was too tired and out of breath to speak, but simply by that look in her eyes, she silently thanked her. She was completely numb and sweaty at that moment that her five sensed had not worked properly, and hadn't heard Maude walking around in the background. _Finally, I'm done._ She thought, with complete satisfaction. _I'm not sure how long that took, but I sure am glad that's over..._

"Well, I have to hand it to you, little girl, you did vell…" Maude said, still roaming around from behind.

_Little girl…._ Tea thought with much frustration, but figured it would be best not to confront this woman.

Suddenly, the felt two hands snake onto her stomach, and tie something around her back.She stiffened slightly, then, whenallfive senses jumped back into action, she realized she was now wearing an apron.The old woman's eyes squeezed tight as a smile on her face broadened. "Now, how about we start preparing supper?"

Tea suddenly shot her eyes towards Maude being completely surprised. "But, but! It's only mid-afternoon!" she protested, seeing that the sky was nowhere near dark.

Maude looked at her strangely "So…? It's a little late, but we can still do it… no?"

She stared blankly, completely thrown off by that last statement. "l- late……?" she squeaked. Back at her house, she would have thought it was early. At that time, she would have been out with friends, at a café right after school ended. Joey would have been eating until his stomach exploded, Tristan would have probably been fighting with Joey over who gets the last piece of cheesecake… well, unless Duke was around, then he'd be fighting over Serenity. And Yugi…. Yugi would have been laughing along with her, at the sight being played out right before their eyes.

A sudden pain lurched from her stomach and tore through her chest, making her nauseous, and causing her face to strain in a pained expression. _No, not his again... Why do I hurt so much when I think of you? You made the descision, why can I not accept it?_ She uncontrolably dropped to the ground."Give me back my heart…" she said so silently, one would barely hear it. To her dismay, it was just loud enough for Maude to hear.

"Eh..?" she asked sympathetically, noticing the girl was about to cry and whatever it was that hurt her, must have gone really deep.

"STOP CRUSHING IT, YUGI!!" she cried, as the pain in her chest amplified and her heart seemed to swell, but she tried her best not to let a tear drop from her eye… to her surprise, she was successful.

"Tough… isn't it….?" Asked a harsh voice, yet the tone was very comforting. "Zat is vat it does to you… it doesn't let you sink (think) for yourself. Zen, it grabs your heart, and no matter vat you say, it's alvays rough to it." The chest Tea's head was being pressed against rose dramatically, and then fell. "But… you know vat? You cannot let it get to you. It's rough to your heart on purpose. It LIKES seeing you helpless… but if you ignore it, and show you don't care, it vill be less harsh."

"Thank you…" Tea whispered and took a deep, shaky breath to stop yet another wave of tears from pouring out. Her nose had turned red, as did her eyes, but there were no tears. Then an uneasy feeling came over her… she was being comforted my a total stranger! One she's just known for a few hours, and even those hours haven't been the best ones of her life. "Why are you being so kind?" she sniffled, then pulled herself from the comforting grasp.

"So no vun else vould get hurt in zat way… so one vun vould cry for zat stupid reason." A smile curved on her old, dried lips. Tea couldn't help but smile as well. "Zat's a good girl… Now, how about we continue vere vee left off. Ve haven't much time."

"RIGHT!" Tea said, now determined.

"I'll get ze ingredients, vhile you get ze pots and pans…. On second though, forget zat, I get ze pots and you get ze ingredients."

"Yes ma'am!"

The two hurried to get the stuff they needed, then Maude let Tea take the stage with the cooking… while giving her instruction, of course, so she wouldn't mess up the taste or appearance.

It was already dark when they had finally finished. Seto's muffled footsteps were heard outside the kitchen, as he audibly walked into the dining room. "Maude?" he asked loudly.

The two females snickered proudly as they looked into the tinfoil-wrapped pan. "You have done vell, child. I'm very proud of you." She said quietly, then heard another call for her name. "YES?" She called back. "Vee're ready ven you are!"

"We're?" Seto asked, confused. He didn't think anyone would be with Maude while cooking. If he knew Maude, which he did, she did NOT want anyone to interfere with her cooking. He shrugged. _Must be her bad English…_ He called for Mokuba to come and eat.

"Go, child, go give it to zem." Maude said, thrusting the pan Tea's way once they were almost at the door.

"No, you!" she said. "I want to see their reaction, and THEN we could blow the cover."

"Just bring it to zem!!" Maude snapped, and shoved her out of the kitchen.

Tea came stumbling into the dining room, and almost dropped the pan. Luckily, she regained her balance just in time.

Seto spat out his already poured water at the sight of who was bringing him the food. "Not you again!" he snapped.

"Mister Kaiba, I can assure you, this is not ze bad food you've had earlier. She's vorked very hard to make zis, so at least TRY it." Maude ordered, while Tea opened the foil.

Seto had never seen a dish like this before. It had noodles, eggs, cheese and all sorts of vegetables. Although the combination sounded rather odd, it looked good… a little on the sloppy side, but somewhat commendable. The smell wasn't too bad either, but he was not ready to judge it by that, especially not after what happened earlier on.

Tea distributed the meal evenly and backed away. Being in the kitchen for so long had not deprived her of food, so she's already had her share. "I'm out." She said quickly, but her wrist was caught, and she was hauled back.

"You're staying. Don't vorry, you von;t be disappointed."

Seto looked at it cautiously, this way and that, not wanting to ruin his taste buds again. Mokuba, on the other hand, dove right into his plate. "WOW!!! This is delicious, Tea! What is it?"

"erm…." She said sheepishly while scratching the back of her neck. "I'm not too sure what it's called."

"It's a secret." Maude winked and let the other Kaiba brother taste it.

He slowly cut off a piece, looked at it from front view, both side view's, three quarter view, and under. He looked somewhatlike a cat, debating whether or not if he should step outside, examining it with it's nose and scanning the area cautiously for dangers. Finally, he decided to put that piece in his mouth, and chewed it slowly, letting the taste register.

"Could have been better." His cold words set of a reaction in Tea's brain that made her go wild. He was sitting there, his eyes closed, his back straight, with his fork and knife held in an aristocratic manner.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that, what did you say?" Tea asked, trying to calm down and hid her anger quite well.

"could have had better." He said, while turning his face to her, and opening his blue eyes, piercing the once soft atmosphere of the moment.

That's it, the last fuse had just blown up and blinded her vision with sheer rage. She stomped over to him, with a visibly sarcastic"I'm not mad at all" type of expression, and stopped right in front of him. His face was still turned to her, but as he was moving it in another direction, a painful sounding slap echoed throughout the large room. Her eyes were fierce, her hand prickled and burned as an aftermath of the hard smack, but she paid no mind to it. His face was whipped in her direction, and the cheek that was now facing her, swelled a deep red in the form of a hand.

He brought one hand to his face while the other was clenched in a tight fist. His face felt as if it swelled double its normal size, and that burning, stinging roped weretugging at his cheaks,causing the ability to speak seem rather difficult at the moment.His eyes were forcedclosed once againand his eyebrows twitched. "Get out of my sight." He said warningly, but that warning had not scared her at all, it had only libarated her.

"Gladly" she spat and walked calmly out of the room, feeling as if A LOT was taken off her chest. _That felt good. _

End of chapter! Yes… I had to put that last line in, it just seemed to highlight the moment. Anyway-

Judo: Man! You're writing sucks! I can do MUCH better!

Pyro: URUSEI! Let me finish! So… yea, these chapters were quite disappointing… you can tell me if they suck, I won't mind.

Judo: Ok, THEY SUCK! I can do much better!

Pyro: I know they suck… so, if you can do much better why not write something of your own?

Judo: er….

Pyro: thought so.

Just hang in there until the Festivities start… that's when things get interesting.


	8. TERRIBLE WIERD AND SHORT! don't kill me

Lily: o.0… truth be told, I was thinking of putting this on hold due to the lack of ideas… but, I've decided to continue. And… er… that was the double post… I WILL be seventeen… in quite a few months, but back when I posted, I turned sixteen. Anyhow, try and enjoy this chapter…. My writing's gotten a bit more serious since I last posted, and might have gone down… plus, writing something when you've got NO idea what will go on can be a big pain in the arse.

nightfall: I hate to sound rude, but your becoming quite the bother with all those questions. Anyhow…. Roberto/Tea! didn't see that one coming. That would have been a good idea, but, you see, Roberto is quite a bit older than she. I would have done that if he was, say, ten years older… but no. and who says she'll fall for Kaiba?

Princess of the Nile: how am I making Tea sound so "EW" ? She is not my favourite character, but I don't hate her. Now that that's cleared up, I don't really do the whole in-character thing, so you've got to stomach that as much as you can.

Heh, this is very much like a chat-line. Well, Judo's returned to Japan. He's been gone for a while now….

**_ATTENTION! ATTENTION! (yeah, lol, I'm desperate) I WILL BE AWAY FOR FIVE WEEKS, SO BE PATIENT! AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME!_ (ok, well, I think I caught your attention… at least I hope…..) _well, this was a really short and terrible (not to mention awkward) chapter, but I updated for the reviewers… however, I might remodify it when I get back, and if not… the later chapters will be better, trust me on this…._**

-

The window was splattered with rain, and Tea awoke in tears again. The night before had triggered such an anger, she had to beat on every pillow in sight, and was brought to think of her friends…. They would never do something like that, and if they had been there, they would have protected her. If only the gang was still in one piece… if only it wasn't torn apart… if only Yugi…. She couldn't bring herself to think of it anymore, unable to endure the unbearable wave of pain.

She gripped at her chest and pushed her fist into it, hoping the pain will subside… all she could do was sit and wait…

-0-0-0-0---0-0-0—0-

Blinds whipped furiously, and let in a strong gust of wind. Kaiba twitched a little, and struggled to keep warm, but gave in and opened his eyes. He fingered his cheek, and winced slightly. He was impressed at how a girl, especially a cheerleader can hit so hard. Nonetheless, he was still quite pissed. He took a look at the clock, and for a second felt safe, and snuggled back into his pillow, but when he replayed the picture of the changing clock in his mind, he thought he'd go ballistic. He was reaching up to his head to pull at his hair, but he caught himself.

_I'm late again!_ He inwardly growled. _...stupid girl…_ His back shot upwards and he found himself in a cold wet puddle. For a moment he was caught so off-guard, he just sat there, scolding himself at how stupid and childish he was for letting something like that happen, but when he found everything else with little droplets on them from the window to his bed, he figured it must've rained while he was asleep… but he still scolded his foolishness for leaving the window open. Luckily, it was dry outside so his work will go on.

Rubbing the grog away from his face, he got up and staggered his way to the window, the wind lashing at his bare skin. He shivered and slammed them closed, suddenly dizzy. He started to sneeze repeatedly, and clung to the windowsill while he was temporarily blinded by the sneezes.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Maude stood in the kitchen, surrounded by the harmonious smell of her own cooking. She took a nice, long whiff and let it out in a sympathetic sigh. When she saw Tea early that morning, her head was down and her face looked red and watery. She didn't find it fair that Tea, at such a young age, had to feel such pain that Maude had felt when she was much older. She adapted to the pain… nothing hurt her so much anymore…

She was pulled from her daytime nightmare by the sound of violently thumping feat. She instantly became paranoid and gripped tightly on the spoon. The footsteps got closer and closer. She sprinted out the kitchen and stood in the way of the staircase door, in a ready position to attack.

Kaiba was running so fast to get out the door, he blind to his surroundings. _Two hours late…. Damn!_ His feat made a whole lot of clanking and clashing as they rushed down the metallic steps of the staircase. At the last floor, he couldn't take his feat going so slow, so he jumped down from the top step. His cloak and most of the loose clothing flew up like a parachute as he fell, and dropped after he landed noisily on the ground. With no time to spear, he shot out the door and rushed for the only thing he saw…. The front door. Something spontaneously lunged outward and chocked his neck. His foot slipped from under him and he was forced to the ground with a bang. He wasn't able to see anything… it was all a blur… Many loose articles around the area shook and chimed after the harsh impact. He blinked, not knowing what hit him as the moment of darkness faded.

"Oh! Mister Kaiba! It vas only you." Maude said, relieved. "I thought I vas goving to have a heart attack…" she finished by putting her hand to her chest as if to emphasize that statement.

Seto shook the rest of the darkness from his eyes and stood up. "I'm late for work." He added an 'again' mentally. He was trying his best to be calm at the moment, but an angry bomb was about to explode. "I'm leaving" he declared as calmly as he could and tried to walk to the door normally, but he only ended up stumbling all over.

"You don't look so good." she said bluntly, "perhaps you should take ze day off?"

"I'm fine!" he growled, and picked up the pace until the stagger was no longer visible. He burst through the front door and ran as fast as his legs would take him.

"GET TO WORK!" he barked so loud, his lungs were emptied. Little did he know, everyone was already at their post.

"You alright, boss?" one man shouted from the top of his ladder when he saw Kaiba dragging himself across the field.

He gave his worker a look, so cold and so sharp, the employee was surprised an icicle didn't materialize from them. He shifted slightly in his seat and turned his head back to his work. Kaiba looked on and tripped his way to the section he was working on. As he looked up, he expected to see it only half-built with no plastic or metal covering the skeletons, but just before the sun could blind him with it's powerful light, he was sure he saw the rides completed. He put a hand to his forehead to protect his burning eyes and saw exactly what he had seen one moment ago. "All clear, sir." One of them confirmed with his thumb up.

A warm feeling spread throughout his body and tickled his gut. His dizziness was temporarily forgotten, though the itch in his nose was a little harder to ignore. "ALRIGHT! Enough sitting around! Let's move to the last section!" he yelled, before a smile could break through his mask. This time, though, the yell wasn't harsh or demanding, but soft in the strangest of ways. Some workers were confused by his tone, but didn't take the risk of questioning it.

-0—0-0-0-0-0

"Come on, Roberto!" Mokuba yelled, pulling at the large man's arms. "Get out of bed already!"

"Mokuba, I can't!" he said, visibly resisting a growl, tugging his arms back.

"You don't have to cook." The kid replied in a sing-song type of voice, trying his best to get Roberto out of bed… Not having another male to talk to was driving him absolutely mad.

"Yes, and if I stay in bed, I won't have to look after you." He replied, slightly sarcastic. He got his arm free and settled back into his bed.

Mokua did not like Roberto's sense of humour. "That was…. Cold….." he said, his eyes suddenly shaded by his thick black main.

"Aw come on! It was a joke!" he laughed a bit to try and manipulate the young boy, but it didn't quite work. His expression became serious as he grabbed the kid's shoulders tightly and cleared his throat. "Look, you can stay in here of you like, but I cannot go downstairs. Let me rest, and maybe in a few days it'll get better, and-"

"MEAL FOR YOU!" Maude suddenly barged in, and sounded as if she was trying to sing in the opera. She rushed over to Roberto's bed and dropped the heavy plate on his stomach. He coughed a bit at the impact, but tried hard not to let anything fall.

"Maude, I cannot eat so much, I-" he started with a cough.

"Nonsense!" she cut him off. "You mast eat. Bring ze plate dowvn ven he's done, kid." She said, looking down at Mokuba, and left.

The two males looked at each other. Once the door fully closed, Mokuba formed a fist and punched the wall. "I HATE when she does that!" he yelled, and released his anger in another punch.

"Well, its nice to know I've got my own servant for a change." Roberto replied with a smirk on his face. He laughed hardily at his own joke, until a fist struck him hard on the head.

"Not funny" Mokuba grunted with his arms crossed and his face turned the other way.

"ay…." Roberto said loudly, rubbing his head.

-0-0-0-

Tea sat in the hot pool, her head leaned against the wall and her knees up against her chest. Her face was also getting the same treatment from the hot tears that never seemed to stop coming down. The night before had probably upset her more than it had upset Kaiba. Neither of them knew it would have affected her in such a way.

She removed her tear-streaked face from her knees with a little difficulty. Her face was stuck to her knees by the tears, but she manages to look up. The tree in front of her had an odd, yet familiar shape to it. She leaned her head sideways for a moment to get a clearer look at it, and all the spikes sticking out of it. She gasped as her heart instantly began to throb again to the point that she felt sick. Everything she saw reminded her of Yugi. The tree was very much like his hair, the pool was big and round… and warm, very much like his eyes used to be…. And her face… she was used to seeing Yugi next to her when she had a face like that… she needed his warmth… craved it.

She started shaking her head violently; so much that she got a headache and whiplash. _WHY!_ Her mind shrieked_ why must you haunt me like this! Why can't I stop thinking of you?_

"Tea?" Mokuba asked worriedly from the doorway, but she was too wrapped up in her furry and agony. " Tea! Stop!" he pleaded, and jumped for her, but a strong hand caught him.

"Leave her alone." Kaiba said with a bit of disgust.

The yonger boy looked up at his brother sharply, and was about to burst out in angry bouts, but one look at his pail face and paled, dried lips and he chocked on his words.

"hmph, pitiful." Seto snorted and started dragging his brother inside, leaving Tea to deal with her own anger.

She didn't show up at supper that night, and Seto wasn't able to eat. Maude waddled out of the kitchen with a large plate of food for Roberto. "Oh? Vere is ze girl?" she asked, she hadn't paid much attention when she was serving the food.

The older Kaiba looked towards the door and snorted, then pushed his chair out and swayed this way and that before reaching the door. "I think I'll go upstairs now…" he said, somewhat shakily and headed up.

He just couldn't see right. Everything spun around him, and he wasn't able to walk in a straight line. Getting to the bottom door seemed to take forever and he crashed into most of the walls on his journey up. His vision deteriorated, but he managed to hold out until he got to his room. Then, unable to reach his bed, he collapsed to the floor. _What's…. happening….?_ Were the last two words that left his mind before his panting and darkness took over….

-0-0-0

DUN DUN DUUUN.

Ok, well ,this chapter was short and I haven't reread it.. but I didn't want to lose any viewers so I decided to update before I left….. even though it turned out terribly. Anyhow, as I said, I won't be here for the next five-six weeks, so don't expect any updates… and don't forget about me, I still need your opinions!


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